Sometimes I have the feeling that, both in anime and manga, authors decide to discuss challenging topics but then don't have the courage to do it thoroughly. This is what I felt watching Hourou Musuko as well. Actually, I don't know if it's because they lack the courage, because they fear the fans' reaction or because they just don't know enough, I guess it depends on the case. In this story it feels like they just wanted to use the idea because of its originality and not actually to discuss the topic realistically, though up to a certain point I used to think they were trying to be serious about it.
The protagonist, Nitori, is a middle school boy who likes to dress like a girl. Takatsuki is a girl who likes to dress like a boy. Nitori is presented as being in love with Takatsuki, though she doesn't seem to feel the same. The fact that the two might be in love could be seen as excessively coincidental, but I guess it makes sense that two people with the same "issue" are attracted to each other.
With such a topic, you cannot but wonder about one thing: do Nitori and Takatsuki really feel that they were born the wrong gender? In other words, are we talking about an actual gender identity disorder? At the beginning it looks like it is, since Nitori really seems to feel like a girl, and the topic of sex change surgery is also brought up once. However, as the story progresses, his feelings start to become ambiguous, to the point that he actually starts to date a girl, likes her, and is even portrayed as manly. This didn't sit right with me. What is the point of having him crossdress and behave like a girl, with all the social problems this involves (people thinking you are a weirdo, your parents having to come to terms with it, your own feelings about yourself), if then all this is completely reset? Was he just crossdressing randomly, without any deeper reason? I was quite disappointed with this.
I like the characters of Takatsuki and Chiba more. Takatsuki is more coherent. She really seems to have an issue with her being a girl, and is also more determined when it comes to dressing like a boy. Like Nitori, she doesn't really seem to develop an interest in other people of her own gender, but we don't see her as much so we don't really delve deep into her head.
The reason I like Chiba is that I find her very human. Her behavior seems excessively cold at first, but the way she feels about other characters and her reasoning are believable.
The other characters were OK, though most of them we didn't see enough and we only knew them superficially.
The art is simple but fitting for the story. The music is also simple and doesn't stand out, but I guess it's fine in this kind of anime. The seiyuu were good. They chose a real boy to voice Nitori, and I think it makes sense. I don't really like it when crossdressing characters have a voice actor of the same gender they're crossdressing as (as in, crossdressing guys being voiced by women etc). It makes it "too easy", in a way.
All in all it's a lighthearted, enjoyable anime, but I wish they didn't just discard what seemed to be the main point of the story.
